During a public press conference with visiting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan an Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, the two had the chance to share publicly and with each other, their long-standing grievances.
It was a half-hour long press conference that touched on violations of Greek airspace by Turkish fighter jets, the respective minorities of Greeks and Turks residing in each other’s country, and perhaps, the biggest thorn in the relationship— Cyprus.
Erdogan complained that the Greek side walked away from negotiations earlier this year.
“Who left the table? Southern Cyprus did. We want the issue to reach a fair and lasting solution but that is not southern Cyprus’ concern,” Erdogan said.
Seizing the opportunity, Tsipras responded to his Turkish counterpart citing his age— 43— as the same number of years the dispute has been going on and reminding Erdogan in a borderline sarcastic tone that
“My dear friend, Mr. President, we must not forget that this issue remains unresolved because 43 years ago there was an illegal invasion and occupation of the northern part of Cyprus.”
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